Prologue
Within a dark cave, a skinny old madman sat, his skin ragged as tattered leather, his eyes more dismal than the stormy skies above.
Sitting down; legs crossed his bony arms shook as he carefully poured a cauldron full of purple liquid full of golden flakes into two small black vials.
With a flick of his hands, the black cauldron was set ablaze, going up in wafts of smoke!
At that very moment, a rumbling sounded! Above the skies opened; accompanied by nine thunderous flashes of lightning!
Each of the flashes descended, smashing to the ground outside the old man's cave.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Nine figures, all tall and slim, with luxurious hair appeared.
They stared at him, each one had a frown upon their brows, their hands hovering over their swords.
"Come out Lou Tzu, hand over the Divine Dragon's Bone marrow." The only one without a mask strode forward, his glowing sword drawn, pointing towards the depths of the cave.
Bang!
Thunderous echoes came from the skies above, as the black vortex in the skies swirled.
If one were looking carefully, they could see the swordsman's left hand clasped behind his back; it was shaking.
"Yang Chen, I truly am in danger if that big lizard sent you and your sword brothers after me." The old man in the cave stood up, with each word he was coughing heavily, blood started to drip from his lips with each heave of his chest. This never caused the smile on his face to deter, though.
With flashes of lightning in the sky, the pitch-black cave was illuminated. Only a second at a time though, like paintings in a book.
Within was a man; cloaked in black standing so tall his head almost touched the top of the cave. He wasn't brawny though, but instead looked completely withered – almost soulless.
Seeing the tall thin figure emerge from the cave, Yang Chen's voice almost croaked, "Lou Tzu, surrender yourself, come quietly, and master will forgive you!"
Looking to the skies, the withered old man tutted, "Young, Yang Chen, so you call me by Lou Tzu instead of teacher now?" the ragged old man shook his head, disappointed.
"Surrender! You're already wounded! This is the command of the Celestial Court!" Yang Chen shouted at the top of his lungs; deep hatred started to seep from within his voice.
Lou Tzu shook his head, "The Celestial Court is on the brink of civil war, usurped by that ugly lizard. The Emperor is dead, the Nine Imperial Palaces burn, and the Purple-Jade Concubines cry themselves to death. Tell me, Xiao Chen, what power do you hold over me any more?" His eyebrow raised; a terrifying spark ignited in his eyes.
"Damn you, Lou Tzu! If you hadn't fought back against master, he would have unified the Celestial Court! Subduing the Heavenly Princes before the day was through! You dare talk of Civil War! This is all your fault!" Yang Chen screamed, a mix of intense fear and fury.
"You stage a coup d'état; you kill my brother, you kill my nephews, you kill my nieces… and you expect me to do, what? Reside in the underworld without saying a peep?!" The fury in Lou Tzu's voice started to grow; the thunder in the skies began to rage.
Crack!
Bang!
Lou Tzu gritted his teeth, shaking his head.
Pointing his finger outwards, he cut a circle in the air, causing a dark empty space to appear within.
He took one of the vials on his belt, putting it into the black spatial ring on his finger. Removing the ring he threw it into the air, a black streak pierced through the air, grabbing the ring.
Fast!
"A Nether Void Crow!" Yang Chen spurted out as he saw a crow snatch up the ring, flying through the hole as it collapsed in upon itself.
"Where – where did it go, Lou Tzu! Where did it take that vial?!" Yang Chen spat, waving his sword like a madman.
"Don't worry; I'll tell you, Yang Chen. None of you will be leaving here alive after all!" Lou Tzu removed his cloak, revealing his long torso, half of which burnt bright white. The other half was missing, the edges consumed with a blazing holy fire!
Even Yang Chen winced when he saw it, Lou Tzu was the ruler of the underworld, and therefore the Divine Dragon's light energy was his natural bane. In his fury though, he'd still attacked the High Lord of their race!
"The vial, I sent little Wu with it to find my last remaining descendant." He spoke, taking out the other vial, quickly putting it to his lips, draining it all.
Smash!
The vial fell to the ground, exploding as it hit the floor. His pitch-black eyes had a brief glimmer of light within them.
"Haha, if I had done this years ago perhaps there would have been a chance…" Lou Tzu quickly stopped in his tracks, taking a deep breath, feeling the energy around him.
With a sharp movement, he reached out towards Yang Chen, a giant black ethereal hand wrapped around him and his sword brothers!
A net of darkness covered up each of them, and as they tried to open their mouths to scream, darkness invaded their gullets!
"Forgive me, Yang Chen, you may only be Exalts, but your energy is more than useful to me." The life in their bodies started to vanish.
The eight behind Yang Chen fell, each turning into a pile of dust. Yang Chen himself started to age, adopting the appearance of an ancient man, like a mirror image of Lou Tzu himself.
Lou Tzu, on the other hand, his rough leather skin turned smoother than jade. The broken ancient man turned young and handsome.
A handsome and charming smile appeared on his face, "It's been so long… ahh. I'll have to thank you Yang Brothers, you all have extremely powerful life-forces." Lou Tzu stood up straight, stretching his back, clicking it several times.
Releasing his fist, the ethereal hand vanished, "Ahh, so you've become a Heavenly Prince, Xiao Yang Chen… you sealed your cultivation though. You couldn't be planning to usurp that big lizard after slaying me, would you?" A devilish grin was left on Lou Tzu's face.
The elderly Yang Chen clawed towards Lou Tzu, marks deeply engraved into the ground, "Don't worry, young, Yang Chen. You're not going to die. You're a Heavenly Prince, after all, your life-force is boundless now. Take this as your final lesson." Lou Tzu started to hover in the air, slowly beginning to ascend into the sky's vortex above.
"Damn you, Lou Tzu! I hate you! I swear to the heavens above; I shall destroy you, I shall wipe out your line, I shall scorch your name from the annals of history!" Yang Chen screamed wildly at the figure floating in the sky.
"Now that would be a sight, Yang Chen. Unfortunately, you're wrong again. I have at most two months left; you shall take at least a hundred years to recover… Now, if you would excuse me, I've much to accomplish and little time to do it." The radiant smile on Lou Tzu's face grew even wider and with a flash and a sonic boom he flew off, disappearing from the skies.
Tweet.
Tweet, tweet.
Yang Chen laid there on his back; the skies had cleared. Birds tweeted, breeze swayed the trees and bright rays of sunlight shone down upon his old wrinkly skin, an all too familiar feeling of burning appeared. His skin hurt… it had been a long time since sunlight had burnt his skin, a long time indeed.
Poof!
A pale white letter descended from the skies, landing on Yang Chen's head.
On it was a red wax seal, it had the royal river crest. The symbol of the underworld. This letter, it was from Lou Tzu.
His shaking hands used what strength they had to grab at it, snatching it, ripping it open.
Taking the letter out he scanned it, a look of shock and satisfaction crossed his face, "So, it's like that is it?" he chuckled to himself, letting his head fall back on the ground.
Completely exhausted he closed his eyes, falling into slumber under the scorching midday sun.